A/N: In response to chapter 700... I'm not so sure Temari would agree to up and leave her village and her family, so I propose this instead.

Shikamaru and Gaara

Shikamaru hated sand. After a week in Suna, the little grains were in every crevice of his clothing, and he couldn't get the dry taste out of his mouth. As he waited outside the Kazekage's office, he took the opportunity to pour a tiny desert out of his shoes while pretending not to see the contemptuous stares from his teammates. They didn't bother him in the slightest, he wasn't here for them.

After the war, many of the shinobi were accepting cleanup missions with groups from different villages. Both for functionality – they sent teams to areas they were familiar with from battle – and to secure the international bonds they had created when they had fought side by side. Shikamaru wasn't convinced it would work, and the three Suna nin that had been placed under him were irritated they still had to take orders from another village, but he just sighed and did what he knew was best for leaf. A little sand in his jacket wouldn't kill him, and of all the villages it was most important to him that Konoha had good ties to Suna.

He wasn't sure when the exact moment that specific inter-village relationships became a priority for him personally, but however tiresome, he tended to accept any mission to Suna available. Why was something he didn't want to discuss, and no matter how many of those damn looks Kakashi gave him. He would always grumble about how he was already familiar with the area and therefore it was less troublesome to find his way around.

The door opened, and he and his team were motioned in. Yeah, familiar…

The report they delivered was short. It was an unremarkable routine mission with no surprises. Gaara sat at his desk, back straight, with boredom playing around his eyes. He didn't say a word through the mission account, and silently nodded as he was handed the completed documents. Only as Shikamaru turned to leave did the Kazekage speak.

"Nara, you stay for a moment." Gaara motioned to a couple guards standing near the door. "You both can leave early, I don't have any more meetings for the rest of the day and Kankuro will be back by nightfall."

"But Kazekage-sama, the leaf-nin-" one of the Suna shinobi started, but was cut off by Gaara with a wave of his hand.

"Is very trustworthy, I assure you. And fully capable of defending me as well in case of attack. No need to worry."

"Yes, sir," they answered, still not completely convinced, but exited the office without further comment. Gaara turned his attention back to Shikamaru with a deep sigh, who only raised an eyebrow in question.

"They do their job well, but if we're being realistic, anyone who could get past my defenses aren't going to be stopped by a couple chuunin standing by the door."

Shikamaru shrugged. "More eyes?"

"That would be true if they were sensory type," he said as he shuffled some papers on his desk. Some of the tension in his mouth disappeared as he cleared the last of his work from his line of sight. "You're doing good work with us. I know its hard getting some of the others to completely trust foreign commanders, even now. But I think you've started getting through to some of them. I wrote to Kakashi to extend your stay for a few more days."

Shikamaru cocked his head, "another mission?"

Gaara didn't answer. Instead, he slowly moved from behind his desk and wandered over to a small cupboard at the far side of the room.

"Temari says you enjoy shogi?"

He removed a well-worn board from the shelf, positioned it near the window and sat at one end, not waiting for a response from the shadow nin. Shikamaru hadn't moved from where he stood during his report.

"She never plays me when I ask," he said, quietly watching Gaara carefully place each piece to start the game a half a room away.

"She's not a fun opponent anyway," he responded with a slow shrug. "Too impatient. Not that she wouldn't be good if she put in the time." Gaara looked up at Shikamaru when he heard a huff of a laugh. "You agree."

"I convinced her to play me once. She was good enough to come up with an impressive strategy. Unfortunately it was also a pretty famous one that is easy to beat if you recognize it. She got angry and called shogi a memory game, not a tactic game, and refused to ever play me again."

Gaara chuckled gently. "Would you indulge me in a game if I promise to be more tolerant than my sister?"

Shikamaru agreed after a beat, and uprooted himself from where he stood, trying to mask his unease in the situation with the languid pace of his walk to the board. As he eased himself down, the Kazekage started their game.

Some time into the match, the two were at a stalemate. Gaara, who had relaxed into his cushion by pulling one knee up to his chest, was quietly examining the board with focused eyes. Shikamaru had never realized how young Gaara looked. His posture and the slight relaxation around his eyes made his Kazekage mask fall away and what was left was childlike.

Temari had told him once that Gaara didn't have any small scars. The nicks and scrapes from stray shuriken or rubble in battles that accumulated over his skin since entering academy marked Shikamaru and many others as shinobi. Marred skin was a sign of experience. The Kazekage's skin, however, was soft and spotless, adding to his strange air of purity. Small scars, of course, was what Temari mentioned. Anything bigger – anything that had broken through his ultimate defense – must have left marks much more than skin deep. But those were all covered by his robes, and to an outsider watching their quiet game, Gaara looked like a kid who had never seen battle.

Shikamaru knew better of course, but he couldn't stop his mind from flipping between seeing his opponent as Gaara the powerful commander, and Gaara the child. It was disconcerting.

He observed it couldn't just be the scars. Shinobi carried their experience in other ways – wariness of others and attention to surroundings manifested in your posture and attitude, the fatigue of seeing too many battles that accumulated in your features. Somehow, Gaara seemed immune to those as well. Perhaps it was a function of his near impenetrable defenses that he lowered his outward guard, or it was just years of subdued emotional expression. Either way, his innocence was a pretense – but not one he thought Gaara meant to portray.

Gaara's eyes flashed in the slowly warming light of the late afternoon sun, and he smiled as he finally moved his piece. Shikamaru suddenly realized he should have been paying more attention to the game, and less on his analysis of the player.

"You're good," he commented, impressed at the complexity of strategy that was beginning to emerge in play.

"You're surprised," Gaara replied, still wearing that soft smile. "Thought you would have to go easy so as to not spark international conflict?"

"I didn't realize you had time to practice."

"When I still had Shukaku, I had all the time in the world. And it's calming," he said as he lifted his eyes to look at his opponent. "I think you feel similarly."

Shikamaru didn't deny it. "Do you play with Kankuro?"

Gaara shook his head with a quiet laugh. "He's almost as bad as Temari. I play with Baki mostly, although sometimes I feel like he's only humoring me. Picks the same strategy over and over. It's a nice change to go against someone else who appreciates the tactics."

Minutes after they lapsed into silence again, Shikamaru couldn't get comfortable enough to enjoy the game. The rhythmic clicks and attention on the pieces were normally enough to stop the constant bombardment of thoughts that held him hostage. Shogi's gentle focus put his mind at ease, but in this particular game against the child-commander, it wasn't enough. In an uncharacteristic fashion, he broke the relative peace again.

"Why do you want me to stay in Suna?"

Gaara steadied his hand that was reaching for a piece, and slowly pulled it back to his lap. After opening his mouth a couple times, he finally answered, "In battle, you look out for certain people over others. It's inevitable, even if it leaves you more vulnerable. You know this. With my siblings, it's easy. Second nature. I've been in so many battles with them I know their chakra like mine. I can sense that they always know where I am as well. It has always been like that with us, even... Even before..." He reached back for the piece and advanced it. "During the war though, Temari wasn't just tracking me and Kankuro. She was tracking you as well. You're making my sister vulnerable."

Shikamaru's eyes widened a fraction, but he wouldn't let himself react any more visibly. "I was under the impression you thought bonds with people made you stronger."

Gaara smiled, but this time it had more of the feel of a grimace. "Yes, as Naruto has so keenly pointed out many times, our strength comes from these bonds. I am, however, not as trusting as Naruto is with others intentions. I am not one to take these relationships between people lightly."

"Maybe she was just looking out for me because I was the proxy after you-"

"Don't give me that shit." Shikamaru almost dropped the piece in his hand. The childlike demeanor evaporated for a moment and Shikamaru distinctly recalled what Gaara was like the first time he encountered him. Neither kid, nor commander, only weapon.

"I-I don't know what you mean."

"Are you scared, Nara?" Gaara looked at him pointedly, studying his features.

Shikamaru didn't answer for a moment. Weighing the risks of what he was about to say. The scales tipped in his mind and he let out his hushed reply, "Are you?"

Gaara's eyes narrowed dangerously, and Shikamaru was suddenly worried he had made the wrong decision. But after a moment, the red head let out a heavy sigh and brought both knees up to his chest. "Of course I am."

Shikamaru studied him once more, still unable to reconcile the many faces of the boy – the man – in front of him.

Gaara continued, "Most people assume I was the only one changed by an opponent at the chuunin exams."

"What does that mean?"

Gaara thought for a moment before answering. "It's clear that the way I looked at the world changed that day. The way I saw myself, and how I saw my relationships to others. Especially my siblings, and I couldn't be more grateful." Gaara ran a hand through his hair and Shikamaru noted how he refused to look at him now. "Before then, I wasn't blind. I understood Temari and Kankuro better than anyone else, I just didn't care. But that understanding allowed me to see that I wasn't the only one who came back from Konoha with a different outlook."

"I can't imagine-"

"No, you can't. You didn't know Temari before you fought her, but I've always thought that her fight with you… allowed her to let me close to her again? To forgive me, and accept me back as a brother? I couldn't have come this far without her, and I think I owe part of that to you. My fear has always been that you'll come back to collect on that debt."

"Debt?" Shikamaru asked, stunned. Gaara turned his attention back to the board. Shikamaru's mind, however, was far from the shogi game. "How could I have claim on anything that you've accomplished?"

"Claim is not the same thing. You gave some of yourself to Temari in the tournament, however small. Then that part grew as the years passed. In turn, it seems she has given her heart to you."

Shikamaru felt vaguely like he couldn't breathe. He stared at the board, but saw straight through it, unable to make a move or speak.

"This isn't a puzzle to be solved, Shikamaru. I'm not here to threaten or bully you. Temari is fully capable of that herself. I just need to know so I can help my big sister-"

The shadow nin finally snapped. "What do you want from me? A confession? A declaration of undying lust for her? No. She's the most… inconceivably frustrating woman I know. She gets under my skin, and I just… it just…" he moved his hand to the back of his neck in an agitated motion. "Just festers… until I can see her again. This terrible feeling that makes me beg Kakashi for every Suna mission just so I can see her once, and make this damned feeling go away. It's demeaning, and troublesome, and inconvenient. Yes, I love her. Of course I love her. But it's just so inconvenient."

"Inconvenient…?" Gaara seemed to be looking at him differently.

"Yes, inconvenient. Because it can never happen. You think that I haven't considered it? Thought of hundreds of ways I could be with her? I'm not clueless; I know how much she means to you and how important she is for Suna. How can I- where do I fit? Like you said. I make her vulnerable. And that's not just her life I'm playing with then, is it? This game," he said, waving his finger at the board. "This silly shogi game, it's going to be a matter of international relations no matter what happens. And you knew that going into it."

"Why does that have to be a bad thing?" Gaara responded. "You don't think there is any merit in the way villages have been cooperating after the war? That this sort of peace can be sustained? How else can we do that besides building true bonds between countries? You're afraid because of what might happen if Suna and Konoha go to war again, but the more we build bonds like yours with Temari, the less likely we are to fight."

"That seems extremely idealistic," Shikamaru scoffed.

"And yet, if we do go to war, neither of us would be able to fight against Temari. It is already happening, we just need to acknowledge it and use it to our advantage – if you would like to think in tactical terms."

Shikamaru snorted. "Tactics? You said this wasn't a puzzle-"

"Will you be Konoha's ambassador?" Gaara said, interrupting him.

Shikamaru blinked a couple times before finding his tongue. "Shouldn't Kakashi appoint that position?"

"He did," Gaara replied, the corners of his mouth turning down slightly. "Although I think his exact words were 'I'm tired of this damn nonsense, you just keep him.' I only agreed with the choice. You would live here half the year."

Although he tried to keep his face neutral, Shikamaru couldn't help the smile that snuck onto his face. "I'm not going to like the weather…" Looking back at the Kazekage, he found that he didn't have to see Gaara the child or Gaara the weapon or Gaara the leader. He could just see Gaara, smiling back at him. He resumed their game of shogi without another word.

The game ended with Shikamaru barely securing victory after a long fight. Gaara accepted defeat gracefully, and proceeded to clean up the board.

"Temari told me about your 'king,'" Gaara said offhandedly, turning over that shogi piece in his hand. He smirked. "Where do you think those kings come from?"

Shikamaru turned a shade of red. "I don't think-"

"I think I'd rather like being an uncle." Gaara carried on. "I doubt I will ever be a father. I think Temari and Kankuro know that, but I've never told them that I would like to be an uncle." He sighed. "Of course that isn't my choice and I wouldn't want to pressure them in any way."

"But pressuring me seems to be okay," Shikamaru mumbled.

"Ah… I'm not pressuring you. I just wanted to tell someone who wouldn't- someone who wasn't family, I guess. That I would like to be an uncle."

Shikamaru snickered. "You're more talkative than usual."

"No," Gaara replied thoughtfully. "In my experience this is how much I talk when I am amongst friends."

"Friends," Shikamaru repeated, trying the word out on his tongue, and he couldn't taste the grittiness of the sand anymore.